Liverpool FC Forum

by **ben oseman** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:04 pm

agreed m8.

by **Rush Job** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 2:18 am

damjan193 wrote:Mika FC - Rabotnicki FC 0 - 0 YEEEEAHHHH I CAN'T BELIVE IT LIVERPOOL ARE GOING TO COME TO MY CITY!!!!With players like N'Gog and Lucas and that's if I'm lucky but WHO CARES I'm going to see my club in live hahaha

Your club?
I thought you wanted us to lose?

by **Rush Job** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 2:35 am

7_Kewell wrote:
bigmick wrote:To be honest I know many won't agree with me, but I don't really care about this competition at the moment. It'll be different if we get to the last eight or something, but right now if we got knocked out I'm not massively concerned. Let the kids play the early rounds and we'll take our chances would be the way I'd go, concentrate on the league.

i'm with you on this.

Judging from Roy's comments, he's going to rest the big names for the early matches too. Use the comp to bed in youngsters, but leave the likes of Torres out and save them for our premier league goal of a top 4 finish.

I agree too.
I just worry we are going to get off to a bad start, I think getting pre-season right is important and with so many players coming back late its hard to get your first 11 in rhythm with the ( possibly new ) system and each other. I know you can say all the top sides have the same problem but I think having a new manager it makes it even more important that he has time to work with his top players.
As far as this tie goes its a bit stupid that word cup players are ruled out due to most of them not even being in training yet. UEFA need to sort it out if they want the best teams to participate.
As it is I suppose its a bit of a leveler, in many ways it makes it more interesting imo, give some of the younger lads their chance to impress the new manager and stake a claim.

by **Owzat** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 8:07 am

Many cite spudz last season as setting the tone for the season, so why would getting dumped out of Europe be any different?!?! If spudz set the tone for last season, then I'd argue the struggle to a win over Standard Liege in 08/09 set the tone for that season, a struggle for the first 10 Premiership games but results working out for us.

Last season was the first we didn't have to play the 3rd round qualifiers under Rafa - coincidence?

I though going straight into the groups would help us, maybe I was wrong

by **ben oseman** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 8:31 am

nah, you should be hoping to play less games as possible, as u risk having a burnout towards the end of the season, especially if we are still in several competitions

by **Raoul** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 9:08 am

7_Kewell wrote:
bigmick wrote:To be honest I know many won't agree with me, but I don't really care about this competition at the moment. It'll be different if we get to the last eight or something, but right now if we got knocked out I'm not massively concerned. Let the kids play the early rounds and we'll take our chances would be the way I'd go, concentrate on the league.

i'm with you on this.

Judging from Roy's comments, he's going to rest the big names for the early matches too. Use the comp to bed in youngsters, but leave the likes of Torres out and save them for our premier league goal of a top 4 finish.

Maybe not, could be a few of the senior players starting or on the bench at least.

It'll be interesting to see who plays today, and for how long for.

I hope he just has a few players in mind for the Europa League - for example Cole, Soto, Jovanovic, Babel.

by **NANNY RED** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 12:01 pm

I think ill be giving Macedonia a bit of a swerve for me, i would of have liked to have gone there because its a new place ive not been to , but me holidays i shall be putting first .

by **Owzat** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 9:40 am

ben oseman wrote:nah, you should be hoping to play less games as possible, as u risk having a burnout towards the end of the season, especially if we are still in several competitions

Isn't that a contradiction?! The fewest games possible is 38 in the Premiership and going out of the first round of each cup competition, so how will we still be "in several competitions" by playing "less games as possible" !?!?!?!?!

And without a major trophy since the FA Cup in 2006 we can't really afford to write off competitions without a bit deeper thought than just assuming less games = higher in the league.

Games played vs league position and trophies won

62 in 05/06 : 3rd in Premiership (FA Cup Winners)
60 in 04/05 : 5th in Premiership (European Cup Winners)
59 in 07/08 : 3rd in Premiership
58 in 06/07 : 3rd in Premiership (European Cup Finalists)
56 in 09/10 : 7th in Premiership
55 in 08/09 : 2nd in Premiership

Well it might look like less games = higher Premiership finish, but for one more game in 09/10 than 08/09 we finished five places lower and won sweet FA.

I think our finish in the league has more to do with how well we and rivals for top places play, our run in to Runners-Up spot in 08/09 came with a European Quarter-Final tie.

In 05/06 we bombed out of the European Cup at the last sixteen stage, still notched up more games than any other season - largely thanks to the World Club Championship and four extra games of qualifying for our European Cup defence, we still managed to finish 3rd among all that so for seven less games we win FA but finish one place higher - score

Most Premiership games run-in after final cup game

0 in 04/05 (5th in Premiership) : last game was the European Cup Final
0 in 05/06 (3rd in Premiership) : last game was the FA Cup Final
0 in 06/07 (3rd in Premiership) : last game was the European Cup Final
2 in 07/08 (4th in Premiership) : P2 W2 D0 L0
2 in 09/10 (7th in Premiership) : P2 W0 D1 L1
6 in 08/09 (2nd in Premiership : P6 W5 D1 L0

Three seasons cup finals meant we had those as our season finale, but 2x 3rd and 1x 5th is not bad considering, and their average is lower than 1x 2nd, 1x 4th and 1x 7th. Also you have to factor in 04/05 was rebuilding with most of the squad Houllier's, and of course we reached two cup finals (League Cup, lost to Chelsea) so that was two cup runs at the expense of a place or two. So there is no concrete proof reaching a cup final, or having a long cup run, substantially affects a season (for us)

Not to mention if Woy foresakes cup competitions and finishes mid-table in the Premiership he won't have a cup win or run to 'balance the books' or use as an excuse for a poor league finish. A gamble indeed if you ask me, I'd play the game fully if I was Woy and not put all eggs in one basket as he could easily drop the basket

by **Owzat** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 10:00 am

Raoul wrote:
7_Kewell wrote:
bigmick wrote:To be honest I know many won't agree with me, but I don't really care about this competition at the moment. It'll be different if we get to the last eight or something, but right now if we got knocked out I'm not massively concerned. Let the kids play the early rounds and we'll take our chances would be the way I'd go, concentrate on the league.

i'm with you on this.

Judging from Roy's comments, he's going to rest the big names for the early matches too. Use the comp to bed in youngsters, but leave the likes of Torres out and save them for our premier league goal of a top 4 finish.

Maybe not, could be a few of the senior players starting or on the bench at least.

It'll be interesting to see who plays today, and for how long for.

I hope he just has a few players in mind for the Europa League - for example Cole, Soto, Jovanovic, Babel.

CBs and goalkeeper shouldn't need that must rest. In truth Woy referred to the World Cup fatigue yet a lot of players wouldn't have been that much affected :

Champions Spain : REINA didn't play, Torres is injured isn't he?
Runners-Up Holland : BABEL didn't play, Kuyt is the energiser bunny

QF Brazil : LUCAS didn't go
QF Argentina : Mascherano and Rodriguez, INSUA didn't go but is gone anyway isn't he?

Round 2 England : Johnson and Gerrard, Carragher only played one and a half games out of the first two, Cole barely featured
Round 2 Slovakia : Skrtel

Round 1 Greece : Kyrgiakos
Round 1 Serbia : Jovanovic
Round 1 Denmark : Agger
Round 1 Switzerland : DEGEN if he hasn't been sold didn't go
Round 1 France : N'GOG didn't go
Round 1 Italy : AQUILANI didn't go

So of the names cited there, how many should be tired?!? Those who went out at rounds one and probably two shouldn't be, most barely broke sweat. We don't have any Uruguayans or Germans from the beaten semi-finalists, Wilson and Shelvey didn't go because they're too young and Scotland didn't qualify, so where is this "World Cup fatigue" that is making Woy think we need to play a second string for that reason?!?!?! About 1/3 didn't go or didn't play, although sometimes you wonder if some of the England players were there

So to Soto (

), Babel and Jovanovic you can add Agger, Lucas, Aquilani, N'Gog, Cole, Reina and Carragher as rested enough as they either didn't go, didn't play, went out after three games maximum or barely featured. That should be a good balance giving those that need a rest some while picking some experience and giving players like Babel, Jovanovic, N'Gog, Cole, Aquilani and even Lucas a chance to show they are worth a place in the 1st XI. In fact you can all but make an XI from it, just missing a RB

GK Reina
RB Darby (?)
LB Agger
CB Carragher
CB Kyrgiakos
RM Babel
LM Jovanovic
CM Lucas
CM Aquilani
AM Cole
CF N'Gog

Maybe a dozen games between them at the World Cup. I'd rather that XI than kids who can try and push for a place in the 1st team squad, but those should be contenders and are likely to deny the likes of Pacheco, Shelvey, Kelly etc no matter what they might do against Robotnix of Macedonia

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